Communication may be defined as a process concerning exchange of facts or ideas between persons holding different positions in an organization to achieve mutual harmony. The communication process is dynamic in nature rather than a static phenomenon. Communication process as such must be considered a constant and dynamic inter-action, both affecting and being affected by many factors.
The Seven major elements of communication process are: sender, ideas, encoding, communication channel, receiver, decoding and feedback.
- Sender: The person who intends to convey the message with the intention of passing information and ideas to others is known as sender or communicator.
- Ideas: This is the subject matter of the communication. This may be an opinion, attitude, feelings, views, orders, or suggestions.
- Encoding: Since the subject matter of communication is theoretical and cannot be touched, its further passing requires use of certain symbols such as words, actions or pictures etc. Transformation of subject matter into these symbols is the process of encoding.
- Communication Channel: The person who is interested in communicating has to choose the channel for sending the required information, ideas etc. This information is conveyed to the receiver through certain channels which may be either formal or informal.
- Receiver: Receiver is the person who receives the message or for whom the message is meant for. It is the receiver who tries to understand the message in the best possible manner in achieving the required objectives.
- Decoding: The person who receives the message or symbol from the communicator tries to translate the same in such a way so that he may extract its meaning to his complete understanding.
- Feedback: Feedback is the process of making sure that the receiver has received the message and understood in the same sense as sender meant it
Process of Communication
